Next CUUSOO set: 21103 Back to the Future™ Time Machine

[stephen_rockefeller]

Where do you buy these sets at?

the only one you would be able to but is the BTTF set and it should be available in limited quantities at S@H. If you want to pay inflated prices you can pick one up on eBay when they become available.

[Omicron]

Yes, there was the set idea for the final battle with Ganon. But the set itself wasn't like anything Lego would produce. There's no play features in the suggested set. Oh sure, Link and Ganon can fight and Ganon can play the organ, but those two things alone don't make a fun set. Also the build of the environment, while true to the game, isn't really anything special. On top of that the set idea wasn't even added until significantly later when Lego asked for it. The presentation was focused on new elements rather than sets, and that's not really what CUUSOO is about.

1. Lego has produced many playsets without play features. And just because it wasn't present in the suggestion, doesn't stop Lego from making one. They have control over that. Obviously you never played with a castle set.

2. The set idea was added with the addendum of the new rule which specificed a set format presentation. When cuusoo started, there was no such rule.

3. "that's not really what CUUSOO is about."

From the main website, and I quote:

"1.Have an Idea?

Create a Project, share your product concept, and see what other people think."

A product can be anything, from set to elements.

-Omi

[Darth Wayne]

I am SO much looking forward to this set being a big BTTF fan this is like a tiny dream come true ;)

As mentioned before, hopefully they will redesign the DeLorean, i could live with those minifigs though, they already look pretty great! Hopefully it won't be sold out before i can snatch one up when the day comes.

[xtremegoogler]

I am no fan of conspiracy theories either, just wanted to point out that the designer of the DeLorean works for Cuusoo.

[Jim]

I am no fan of conspiracy theories either, just wanted to point out that the designer of the DeLorean works for Cuusoo.

Lol

[strangely]

And just because it wasn't present in the suggestion, doesn't stop Lego from making one. They have control over that. Obviously you never played with a castle set.

I have played with a castle set. And it was fun.

The problem with the Zelda set was it just wasn't a fleshed out concept, it was a piece of scenery and a list of new molds. The point of CUUSOO is to make the suggested set a reality, it's not supposed to be if it's not good enough Lego will come up with something else. The set that's made is supposed to come from the project. If the set presented isn't up to snuff then their not going to make it. A single set is made from any CUUSOO project, the zelda project with it's list of new elements was more of a pitch for a theme rather than a singular set.

And again if another Zelda project reaches review than it might happen as they said in the video. the current Zelda project didn't make the cut, but a more refined concept in the future might.

I am no fan of conspiracy theories either, just wanted to point out that the designer of the DeLorean works for Cuusoo.

I suppose he could of swayed the decision in his favor, but they did get the votes required so I doubt it's that much of a conspiracy. Plus his 1% royalties is being donated to charity, so it's not like he profited from this in any way.

Edited December 21, 2012 by strangely

[xtremegoogler]

I suppose he could of swayed the decision in his favor, but they did get the votes required so I doubt it's that much of a conspiracy. Plus his 1% royalties is being donated to charity, so it's not like he profited from this in any way.

That's a nice way of saying that the other three sets never even had a chance to begin with.

And we are not supposed to be critical of the whole decision process, because of charity and all.

[kibosh]

Were the Western Modulars meant to be separate sets? if so, they probably should have been entered separately. If not, the price point would be WAY too high on a set of that size. Awesome MOC though.

[Dane]

This is probably a good reason LEGO does not want more Western themed sets now:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebricktime/8282841865/

Actually some nice looking sets in this series it seems!

[WesternOutlaw]

K.I.T.? David Hasselhoff? Are you getting your movies mixed up with TV shows or what? K.I.T. And David Hasselhoff are from Nightrider. Back to the Future had Micheal J. Fox and the Delorean. I can't really tell what you're trying to say with that part of your comment.

Major oops on my part. I saw that car and was thinking KIT for some reason. Excuse my brain fart.

[strangely]

That's a nice way of saying that the other three sets never even had a chance to begin with.

And we are not supposed to be critical of the whole decision process, because of charity and all.

That's not what I was saying at all. I meant that he got the votes needed fairly, so no conspiracy there. And even though he works for CUUSOO he declined the royalties so he's not benefiting from it so I doubt he really pushed anyone to okay it. And the other sets had a chance to, but for practical reasons the others didn't make the cut (Eve online just didn't have the market, MWT was too big and conflicted with Lone Ranger, and Zelda wanted too many new elements). BTTF won because it had the fanbase, a compact set idea and a lack of need of any new parts. It's an ideal CUUSOO set, it meets the criteria to be profitable and that's really all a company cares about.

[Darth Wayne]

Major oops on my part. I saw that car and was thinking KIT for some reason. Excuse my brain fart.

That said, i will take a Knight Rider set day 1!!! Michael Knight and Devon Miles minifigs to top off that sweet KIT model!!! (throw in a bike+RC minifig to complete the set as well)

[xtremegoogler]

That's not what I was saying at all. I meant that he got the votes needed fairly, so no conspiracy there. And even though he works for CUUSOO he declined the royalties so he's not benefiting from it so I doubt he really pushed anyone to okay it.

Masashi Togami gets PAID by working for Cuusoo, so he is benefitting from it.

Why do you doubt that he pushed anyone to okay it? Do you have any insight in the process that I don't have?

He works for Cuusoo, posts an idea on the Cuusoo website, that idea gets approved.

No conflict of interests there.

[Aanchir]

Normally I am not the "conspiracy theory" kinda guy, but refusal of the western town (which is by faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar the best cusoo set ever) makes me feel a bit shivery. Did Lego notice the potential in all the people eagerly awaiting the modular Western Town? So much, that they decided to reintroduce the Western theme? Basically piggybacking on the idea.

I would feel sad for the creator of the Western Town, but I would love to see what Lego will do with the Western theme. Imho this can be a theme to remain for decades. Who doesn't love cowboys and sheriffs

I guess we can start begging for building instructions now

Ummmm... no. The only reason TLG is going to be releasing a Western theme is that Disney is releasing a high-profile western film that they have a great amount of confidence in, and they offered TLG a licensing agreement for sets based on that film. It's no different than the Prince of Persia theme in that regard.

I have a feeling that the future of Western-themed LEGO products will probably depend greatly on the success of The Lone Ranger (both the film itself and the product line), since as others have pointed out, it's been decades since westerns have captivated kids' imaginations the way other genres like swashbucklers or swords and sorcery have. I imagine The Lone Ranger is aiming to revitalize the genre the same way that PotC did with pirate films. Granted, westerns haven't been as dead as pirate films were for many years, but those that have been prominent have rarely been intended as good family films. The Lone Ranger could change that if it proves successful.

Masashi Togami gets PAID by working for Cuusoo, so he is benefitting from it.

Why do you doubt that he pushed anyone to okay it? Do you have any insight in the process that I don't have?

He works for Cuusoo, posts an idea on the Cuusoo website, that idea gets approved.

No conflict of interests there.

I doubt it because frankly it's preposterous to assume that the Cuusoo team has that kind of sway over TLG's decisions to produce sets than the fans do. For the record, Cuusoo is not an arm of TLG; it is a separate company that TLG turned to for crowdsourcing. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to find out when in the process this supposed corruption would have taken place. Are you suggesting that the votes for the BttF project were fabricated? If so, I reckon it's hopeless arguing with you since you're obviously in denial of how iconic and popular the BttF franchise is. On the other hand, are you suggesting that TLG went to extraordinary lengths to create a set that they would have otherwise dismissed as a poor business decision, just to butter up a single employee of their crowdsourcing service? Again, that seems utterly ludicrous considering TLG's business-minded approach to the Cuusoo platform. Even if there were bribes going on under the table, there's no way they could ever be big enough to justify creating a product that couldn't stand on its own two legs as a business case, especially since Cuusoo System will see no benefit from the passing of this particular project that they wouldn't have seen from passing any other project.

Overall, I replied on the first page suggesting that the idea that TLG stole the idea of the Modular Western Town was the silliest response to the review results I had seen. It seems I spoke too soon. This crackpot conspiracy theory is definitely the most preposterous thing I've heard about these results... though I pray that someone doesn't turn up to one-up this theory by drawing even more deranged conclusions.

[strangely]

I just don't see any reason to assume he acted unfairly. Yes, he works for CUUSOO, so what? I think it's unfair to automatically assume he's guilty of something when we have no proof.

[Blakstone]

As an AFOL i appreciate the beauty of MWT just as much as large modular town, but I have intention of ever buying either. The CUUSCOO sets approved so far are rather small. It will be a real challenge for the large sandcrawler to pass review based on its size but there is a large fan base in place for it.

The BttF set is one that I would buy, but if they did a huge town hall with a clock tower to go with the DeLeoran, I would likely pass. I lack the display space to stray too far from my main interests.

[Reevr]

K'nex doesn't have a Zelda license. They never made Zelda sets. In fact their license isn't Nintendo either. It is Mario Kart. The idea was feasible, and even Lego knew about the MarioKart. That's why they didn't turn it down immediately like they did with the Super Mario project.

-Omi

You're right. I was misinformed. I was under the impression that it was a general Nintendo brand characters license but I guess it's Mario Kart only. And the poor sales of those Mario Kart sets definitely had to be a big sign to Lego that this this wouldn't be profitable. I work in a small toy store and have seen firsthand that those Mario figures don't ever sell.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Reevr

[Aanchir]

Overall, I replied on the first page suggesting that the idea that TLG stole the idea of the Modular Western Town was the silliest response to the review results I had seen. It seems I spoke too soon. This crackpot conspiracy theory is definitely the most preposterous thing I've heard about these results... though I pray that someone doesn't turn up to one-up this theory by drawing even more deranged conclusions.

In fact, just to cover my bases, let's list all the ridiculous conspiracy theories that HAVEN'T been suggested yet:

1) The Walt Disney Corporation stole the idea of the Modular Western Town for their film The Lone Ranger. Because nothing is more telling of the tastes of filmgoers than the opinions of a bunch of LEGO fans on the Internet.

2) The LEGO Group stole the idea of the Modular Western Town for their Galaxy Squad series.

3) The LEGO Group has secretly put ALL of the Cuusoo projects from the latest review into production and distributed them discreetly to Cuusoo System employees in exchange for hefty bribes.

4) The LEGO Group stole the idea of the Modular Western Town, then stole the idea of the Back to the Future time machine, used it to go back in time, and created their modular buildings series based on the Modular Western Town idea. Any memories we have of the modular buildings come from the altered timeline.

5) The LEGO Group stole the idea of the Legend of Zelda project for their obvious copycat line Legends of Chima.

Probably don't have all the bases covered; feel free to suggest more!

[Or2Me2]

I hope TLG doesn't turn down the exosuit of Mr. Reid just becasue it's currently making mechas in their Creator line.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Or2Me2

[Meatman]

Wait a minute, so the person who is responsible for the Back to the future project does in fact work for Cuusoo(or has)? So for all we know this could have been planned a long time ago and they knew they were going to put it into production and used Cuusoo to promote it. And then make it look like Cuusoo is actually giving the fans what they want by releasing it.

I think Cuusoo really needs to come out and inform people if an idea or model is too large for their concept. Because I honestly do not think that Cuusoo will ever release anything large no matter how big of a demand that there is. In fact the only project that I see them green lighting in the future is the Mars Rover project. And I am even talking about the current top 6 models that are on Cuusoo included with the next batch waiting for review.

I hope TLG doesn't turn down the exosuit of Mr. Reid just becasue it's currently making mechas in their Creator line.

That is just it, they are already making these things(or similar) so how can they really go with it? In my opinion, Cuusoo really needs to be much stricter with what is accepted into their system as an idea because the way it looks, 99.9% of the projects there more than likely don't have a prayer of ever making it.

[xtremegoogler]

Are you suggesting that the votes for the BttF project were fabricated? If so, I reckon it's hopeless arguing with you since you're obviously in denial of how iconic and popular the BttF franchise is. On the other hand, are you suggesting that TLG went to extraordinary lengths to create a set that they would have otherwise dismissed as a poor business decision, just to butter up a single employee of their crowdsourcing service? Again, that seems utterly ludicrous considering TLG's business-minded approach to the Cuusoo platform. Even if there were bribes going on under the table, there's no way they could ever be big enough to justify creating a product that couldn't stand on its own two legs as a business case, especially since Cuusoo System will see no benefit from the passing of this particular project that they wouldn't have seen from passing any other project.

No, all I'm saying is that it is weird that a Cuusoo contest is won by someone who works for Cuusoo.

[sgeureka]

No, all I'm saying is that it is weird that a Cuusoo contest is won by someone who works for Cuusoo.

I'd rather call it weird if he had designed the MWT, Zelda or EVE and (as it is) failed. Obviously, his job experience allows him to design projects that actually have a chance to pass Cuusoo's review standards.

Of course, people may then demand the same kind of insider information for their projects, but then the other three projects would still not have been made. (They'd just have been cancelled earlier, and wouldn't have got people's hopes up. Lesson to learn: Don't get your hopes up.)

[Hive]

Yeah, but it's sort of logical. CUUSOO is sadly simply not for AFOLs. It's for sucking in new audiences by offering a chance to see their obsession / object of fandom / in Lego.

Oh, I agree. I understand what they are doing and why they are doing it, I'm merely saying that I had hoped for something else.

No, all I'm saying is that it is weird that a Cuusoo contest is won by someone who works for Cuusoo.

I agree with you.

Does it mean that there's any foul play involved? No, there probably isn't. But LEGO shouldn't allow situations to arise that makes people even *suspect* grounds for fould play. That's why, at least in my country, when a company holds some sort of contest with prizes; their employees and their family members aren't allowed to participate.

[snefroe]

ouch.... this sucks BIG time. I was so looking forward to see this MOC turn into a real set...

with all due respect, but the other one doesn't come close to the Western moc as far as quality is concerned.

[paul_delahaye]

Watching the video about the decision, I was surprised at how small (1%) the royalty is for the set designer, giving without them there is no idea? Although it's good they have decided to donate this to charity, you think the Lego group might have considered doubling the commission when they heard this news?